The resin precursors of virtually all synthetic plastics are formulated from ever-more-costly crude-oil derivatives; accordingly, even the resins of mediocre quality used in marginal-value products have become excessively expensive. When alternatives to petroleum are evaluated in terms of cost, chemical potential and occurrence, biomass emerges as the most, if not only, feasible substitute. Although nominally priced, raw biomass almost invariably must undergo lengthy and rather costly hydrolytic processing before useful monomers are realized. The unfavorable economics that accompany these procedures have discouraged development of biomass while fostering use of fossil fuels as the near-exclusive raw material for conventional plastics.
Because the thermosetting resin disclosed herein is synthesized from biomass without an intervening hydrolysis step, it has intrinsic energy, cost and environmental advantages over the resins used to form many conventional thermosetting plastics.